New VPs, Board Members Elected

The North Carolina Bar Association elected new vice presidents and board members on Saturday, June 21, at the 2014 Annual Meeting in Wilmington. Their service begins immediately as members of the NCBA Board of Governors for 2014-15.

Mahlon W. DeLoatch Jr. was elected to a two-year term as vice president. Deloatch is partner-manager at DeLoatch, Hinton & Peters where he has practiced since 1995. He is a graduate of Duke University and the Wake Forest University School of Law.

DeLoatch has provided volunteer leadership to the Tarboro Rotary Club, where he is a past president, the Tarboro Chamber of Commerce, the Edgecombe Community College Foundation Board of Trustees and the Edgecombe County Chapter of the N.C. Community Foundation, where he served as treasurer.

Elected to one-year terms as vice presidents were:
Judge Thomas D. Schroeder of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District in Winston-Salem. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on Jan. 9, 2007, confirmed on Dec. 14 of that year and commissioned on Jan. 8, 2008, succeeding Judge Frank Bullock.

Schroeder is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Notre Dame Law School. He clerked for Judge George E. MacKinnon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1984-85 and engaged in private practice in Winston-Salem, where he was a partner with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, from 1985-2007.

Judge Phyllis M. Gorham of the N.C. Superior Court in Wilmington. Gorham was appointed to the bench in 2007 and elected to an eight-year term in 2008. She previously served as a District Court judge for New Hanover and Pender counties from 2005-07 and as assistant district attorney for those counties from 1995-2005.

Gorham is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the North Carolina Central University School of Law. She previously chaired the New Hanover County Department of Social Services Board and is a past board member of Coastal Horizons Center, Girls Inc., Dreams Center for the Arts and the Blue Ribbon Commission on Youth Violence, all in Wilmington.

Judge Tyyawdi M. Hands of N.C. District Court in Charlotte. Hands was appointed to the District Court bench in 2011 and elected to a four-year term in Mecklenburg County in 2012. She is a graduate of Winston-Salem State University and the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Hands served on the Mecklenburg County Bar Board of Directors from 2007-10 and chaired the John S. Leary Jr. Bar Association in 2007. She was an NCBA Pathways to Leadership Scholar in 2008, and received the 2007 Woman of the Year Award from the Western N.C. Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Dean Jay Conison of the Charlotte School of Law. Conison has served as dean of the Charlotte School of Law since 2013 and is former dean and professor at Valparaiso Law School. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Minnesota School of Law.

Conison previously chaired the Accreditation Committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and served as reporter for the ABA Task Force on the Future of Legal Education, and chaired the Section on Employee Benefits of the Association of American Law Schools.

Elected to three-year terms on the NCBA Board of Governors were:
Robert W. Allen of Charlotte. Allen serves of counsel with Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson, which he joined in 1996. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC School of Law.

Allen is a past chair of the NCBA’s Real Property Section and the Real Property Section of the Mecklenburg County Bar. He is a member of the Real Property Specialization Committee of the N.C. State Bar and a board certified specialist in real property law.

Steven B. Epstein of Raleigh. Epstein is a partner with Poyner Spruill where he has practiced since 2010. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC School of Law.

Epstein served from 2010-14 on the board of directors of the N.C. Association of Defense Attorneys and is past chair of its Product Liability Committee. He is also a past chair of Community Partnerships, Inc. Within the NCBA is outgoing chair of the CLE Committee and past chair of the Litigation Section.

C. Mark Holt of Raleigh. Holt is a partner with Holt Sherlin which he co-founded in 2013. He previously worked as a partner with Kirby & Holt and as an associate with Edwards & Kirby and Tharrington, Smith & Hargrove.

Holt is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina School of Law. He has served on the N.C. Advocates for Justice Board of Governors and as a member of the Ethics Committee of the N.C. State Bar. He has served on the Board of Visitors at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity and since 2002 as a board member for Horizons Foundation of Easter Seals/United Cerebral Palsy of N.C.

Afi S. Johnson-Parris of Greensboro. Johnson-Parris practices with Ward Black Law, which she joined in 2013, and previously practiced with Johnson-Parris Law, Smith Moore Leatherwood and Kilpatrick Stockton. She is a graduate of the University of Miami and the University of Virginia School of Law, and also holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix-Southern Colorado campus.

Johnson-Parris previously served as chair of the NCBA’s Law Practice Management Section and has provided board leadership to Carolina Field of Honor at Triad Park, First Citizens Bank, the Greensboro Bar Association, ABA Law Practice Management Section Women Rainmakers, YWCA, Guilford Coalition on Adolescent Pregnancy and Junior League of Greensboro.

Daniel A. Merlin of Charlotte. Merlin is a partner with Johnston Allison & Hord, which he joined in 2006. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC School of Law, and previously served as co-chair of the NCBA’s 4ALL Statewide Service Day Committee.

Merlin has been recognized by the NCBA Young Lawyers Division as the recipient of the Robinson O. Everett Professionalism Award and was previously recognized by the Mecklenburg County Bar YLD as the recipient of the Lawyer of the Year Award. He is a past chair of the Mecklenburg County Bar Young Lawyers Division and the Bar Leadership Institute Committee.

Patti W. Ramseur of Greensboro. Ramseur is a partner with Smith Moore Leatherwood where she has practiced since 2003. She is a graduate of North Carolina State University and the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Ramseur previously practiced with Haynsworth Baldwin Johnson & Greaves and served as a law clerk for Judge Ralph A. Walker of the N.C. Court of Appeals. She is a past chair of the NCBA Young Lawyers Division, previous co-chair of the NCBA Leadership Academy, which she now chairs, and former chair of the NCBA Young Lawyers Initiatives Task Force.

Lloyd C. Smith Jr. of Windsor. Smith is a partner with Pritchett & Burch where he has practiced since 1991. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC School of Law.

Smith previously practiced with Smith, Daly & Skinner and Gillam, Gillam & Smith. He is an N.C. State Bar councilor and former member of the N.C. Advocates for Justice Board of Governors. He has served as president of the 6B Judicial District Bar and as senior warden of St. Thomas Episcopal Church.